[MUSIC]
[LAUGH]
My gosh.
So good.
[MUSIC]
Friendship, so it is good to see my
friends, give them a hug.
We can all go back to our home now and
see each other on the screen.
Yeah, you can do it.
Standing on the
counter in his underpants.
I'm gonna consider this a win.
Super professional.
That is one of the
beauties of technology.
There's always a fire,
there's always a dumpster fire.
I just gotta get this one thing out.
Just one, I just gotta
get this one thing out.
I've learned to stop myself.
Why, cuz we're flying
somewhere fun, honey?
No.
No, absolutely not.
No. Do you go buy any aliases?
Stop skipping the
toilet, I got the riffs.
Bra, what do you mean, bro?
Soccer's the best when
there's good weather.
Did you say cult or club?
It just felt like they were too manly.
And I was like, yeah, I'd love to.
[LAUGH] What became known as the mahjong moms.
So it was really legit, but
she gave me an aspect on it.
I mean, I can be Shauna.
You're Shauna the mahjong father?
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Shauna the mahjong mama.
Fail.
Third time's not a charm.
It's not a charm, it's hard.
Yeah, I can only go so far.
You can't be a boo girl.
I've never been a boo girl.
Wow, the pool sure looks great.
[LAUGH]
It's so green.
It's greener than our grass.
Oh, good.
It's a metal tromp.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's good.
P.T. was asking when they're
going to get to see Mr. Megan.
It was a split household to some degree.
These decisions are emotional.
The gods smile on you?
Yes.
It's like, oh.
Yeah, those
conversations don't come easy.
Yeah, and the day
that it's not is the day
that I shouldn't be leading people.
That's when I get in the whole, like,
waste your boots up.
That is realistic.
You're positive.
So we're real positive.
One, two, three.
[GASP]
You're kidding.
Get out of here.
We really do finish each other's.
Welcome to the Mr. and
Mrs. English podcast.
I'm Megan.
And I'm Shauna.
We're here to talk about
the wild ride of raising kids,
growing careers, and
keeping life together
in the middle of all the chaos.
So buckle up, because we're all in this
crazy journey together.
P.T. You're like Roadrunner tonight.
Yeah, changed it up a little bit there.
Does it give you the same effect?
Probably.
Oh, that's good.
I think so.
Yeah.
You could just be
Roadrunner instead of, like,
a 1950s doo wop person.
I love it.
Yeah, that's right.
To get my mic ready.
It's very low.
No, I was going to get my
mic ready after I do that.
Yeah.
Because it sets at a different
height for the other podcast.
For sure.
Yeah.
Some technical difficulties, people.
It's all good.
That's all right.
You would think we'd have
maybe the production crew
can just cut this out.
You would think so.
Somebody should be
able to edit the editor.
Yeah, the editor can get rid of that.
It's easy.
Somebody can.
Oh my gosh.
So for folks watching on
YouTube, that was perfect.
You're, like, struggling to lift it up.
And it just went, whoa.
I thought it was done.
This is the top of the line stuff here.
I know.
Well, you know, it is late.
Like, we are recording this late.
It's getting to be late at night.
It's been a long day.
Yeah.
So I will give you grace.
I don't know if the listeners will give
you grace, but I will.
Well, this is the first time we've really
seen each other since this morning.
I know.
It's good to see you.
Almost 10 o'clock at night.
I know.
This has been a long one.
It's a long one.
Yeah.
I mean, this is what
the podcast is about.
It's juggling careers and family.
That's right.
You know?
That's right.
It's days like this when
I had to be in the office.
I have to be in the
office for the next few days
for all day things.
Oh, I don't know how people do it when
they work from an office
100% of the time.
Because then you have to do
all the home and family stuff.
I'm out of it, but then
come back and it's still like,
well, I need to help.
And I feel like I'm jumping in halfway.
And it's just--
Well, you've done it for
two decades, where I usually
was the one traveling all the time.
And my travel schedule has definitely
eased in the last year,
which has been fantastic.
It has.
It's always harder when mom's gone.
Dad's are easier to
leave the house, I think.
I don't know.
Well, a part of it, I think, is just the
segregation of duties
that we have.
Most of mine are the keep the house
running kind of things,
you know?
Like the cooking, the
lunches, the laundry, you know?
Whereas yours are the
things that we need.
It's the things that push us forward.
Mine just kind of keeps the status quo.
All your chores kind of push us forward.
Yeah.
Yeah, it does.
I was going to ask you how it was being
in the office today.
I mean, it's been so long
since we've been in offices,
I mean, seeing people.
I mean, are people getting used to just
seeing each other four
times a year?
Yeah, I think so.
At least at your company, you guys
are fully remote since COVID.
Yep, yep.
It's nice to see people.
I mean, because I've been
with the company so long,
I have a lot of friendships.
So it is good to see my friends, give
them a hug, you know?
It's great.
But for the most part, it's like,
OK, after a couple of
days, it's like, OK,
we can all go back to our homes now
and see each other on the screen.
Yeah, I agree.
I mean, I'm hybrid for the
most part, but basically remote.
I always had an office
kind of somewhere in a city,
but I was never there.
Well, you travel so much.
Because you travel and I
can do my job from the house,
my home office here.
But I've found, because we
never utilized it before COVID,
or rarely do we
utilize video conferencing,
whether it's Skype or
Teams or what's the other one?
Zoom.
Zoom, yeah.
Zoom, probably one of the main ones.
Yeah, zoom, zoom, zoom.
We never use those
before, but ever since, I mean,
it's made it so much easier.
I honestly don't feel like I'm not
at the office with those
people, because at least the way
I used it on my team, and maybe this was
the wrong way to use
it, but I mean, it was
water cooler sometimes.
Yes.
I didn't use it
formally every single time.
No, I didn't either.
And I think I made it a
point, and my teams and everyone
that I work with, we--
I guess our department or whatever--
we made it a standard
thing to always be on camera.
And that allowed us to keep
that kind of human interaction.
I think teams where
they're like, hey, I'm not even
going to turn on my camera, I think
they lost a lot of that, maybe.
But the other thing is, it
does present challenges, though,
at home, because I am--
I've said it before, like
my job is primarily meetings.
But I'm on camera that whole time.
And there's not a whole
lot that you can hide.
During COVID, and we
all have these stories,
I will never forget the view into--
behind me was into our kitchen, based on
where I was sitting.
Do you know the story?
I think so, but we were at a different
house at that point,
because we were building this house.
Yeah.
And I had told-- this was
truly 2020 in the midst of COVID.
And I had told our
oldest, who was fourth grade--
fourth or fifth grade at the time,
I was like, hey, can
you empty the dishwasher?
I get on a call with
my team, and everybody
is just dying laughing.
Sure enough, our oldest
is standing on the counter
in his underpants,
putting away the dishes.
And I was like, you know what?
I'm going to consider this a win.
It's classic.
He is doing what I asked him.
I didn't tell him to put on
his clothes before doing it.
I asked him to do the dishwasher.
He did it.
That's so funny.
I wish-- you always see
those videos or those--
somebody should have videoed
that call and sent it to you.
That's hilarious.
That would have been funny to see.
Oh, it gets around.
They still talk about it.
They're like, remember that time.
And then, I mean, there
were so many from that time,
because the kids were always there.
Yeah, I've had employees
that have younger kids,
and they'd always be jumping on.
And on my desk, I've got
some little Lego figurines
and whatnot.
And so I'd always put the
Lego guys up to the camera
and show them-- little
kids love that kind of stuff.
I know.
They do.
I guess.
So who says the old guy?
Daddy's boss.
Yeah.
Super professional.
Super-- I don't know.
It's a different world now.
I think COVID allowed
working family to blend together
a little bit better.
It works for us, but--
or definitely works for me.
I don't know.
Yeah, I think it did.
But I also saw at one of the companies
that I was at where
people do take advantage of it.
And I'm sad to say that, honestly.
Because most of us are professionals.
But I think if there's a
certain culture, potentially,
that it's kind of set that
way within the culture that--
I feel like people took
advantage of it to some degree.
Not the video
conferencing, but the working from home
expectations of just how
flexible their schedule was.
The nine-hour workday kind of
turned into a four-hour work
days, because it just felt that flexible.
This wasn't on my team.
This was more of a junior-type team.
Most of our teams are senior people.
They've been around for a long time.
So we didn't see that there.
But yeah, that always
frustrated me a little bit.
Because a lot of us, and even
people that I work with still
now, report up through me.
They're the old school.
They got in at 6 o'clock in the morning.
They didn't leave
till 7 o'clock at night.
I mean, you cut your teeth.
In the office.
You got there before the boss.
You left after the boss.
So those guys have kind of struggled
getting through this.
But I think even them
now understand, like, hey,
the video thing's not that bad.
Maybe just put a collar shirt on.
Right.
For the day-to-day.
I mean, obviously, when
we're talking to clients,
you look better.
A little different.
Yeah.
Every now and again, you're
like, gosh, you know what?
I don't have too many
meetings with important people
or whatever.
I'm just going to dress down.
That's different than
being in person with people.
It is, yeah.
You do look nicer.
And it's exhausting.
I find myself a little--
not a little-- a lot more tired at night.
Well, you're in meetings.
Well, I don't know.
Maybe in the office you would have been
going from conference
room to conference room.
Yeah.
Wow.
I mean--
I would be tiring.
You know, you're just--
Just carrying your laptop and your coffee
everywhere you went.
Yep, yep.
You always have it.
And then kick people
out of conference rooms,
because you're waiting and they're late.
Well, I mean, that's the one beauty.
We complain a lot
about technology, right?
But that is one of the
beauties of technology
is that if you use it correctly and
you're professional enough
about it, that that work flexibility--
I mean, literally before we came in here,
we were both on the computer.
Yeah.
You're-- I was laughing with you,
because it's always day four.
You know?
Always the--
Meghan Bean in the
accounting finance side of her job,
you know, they have to close the books.
And the books are always closing on,
like, days three, four,
and five are so hard, or day
four is the worst, you know,
all the time.
Yeah, say 758.
Yeah, say yeah.
But it's just always--
every day's day four,
there's always a fire drill.
There's always a dumpster fire.
And then the newest one
tonight, again, that just hit me.
Because you're doing it all the time now.
You're like, oh, I just got
to get this one thing out.
Just one-- I just got to
get this one thing out.
There's always one thing.
I mean, I know everybody
always has one thing, but--
I know.
It's your go-to right
now, which is kind of funny.
I know.
It really was just one thing.
I just needed to get this one thing.
And then after that one
thing, there's another one thing.
Yeah.
The one thing--
You know, it wasn't even planned.
It really wasn't planned.
Something that-- this is good and bad.
But working from home,
and when you are on video,
you can multitask a lot easier.
So if somebody needs something and you're
in more flexible meaning,
you can send it off real quick,
and no one will even miss the fact
that you maybe spaced
out for a minute or two
while you sent it.
You were just actively listening while
you sent something out.
But being in what--
it's kind of like a
conference that I'm in.
I don't have access, just easy access.
So you're like, I do have
to send that out tonight.
Yeah, that's right.
You don't get as much kind of
double time a little bit there.
I was never good at that
double time when I do it.
So I just can't because I will--
I'll start focusing on that,
even though I'm really good
at having multiple things.
You are.
You're a great multitasker.
I'm terrible at it.
But when it comes to being on video
and trying to do something else, I
can't listen to the person on video
and then concentrate
on something I'm doing.
So maybe it's just a
higher level function thinking
that I can't multitask.
But I'm always-- I've
learned to stop myself.
I just have to be engaged.
That's it.
That's one reason why I
always use the video, too,
is it does keep me engaged.
But because you know if
I've turned my computer off,
I'm just listening
while doing something else.
Yeah.
So oh, well.
Enough work talk.
That's no fun.
I know.
It's not fun.
It's just been a busy day.
So yeah, literally just got--
Every day.
We're getting up early in
the morning before school
to take the kids.
I mean, again, it's the chaos train.
And this is what everybody does, I know.
But just so everybody
knows, the little things
that families like you and us fit in.
So we're flying out of the house earlier
than we would normally
get on a bus or go to
school because we're going
to the airport tomorrow morning.
Why?
Because we're flying
somewhere fun, honey?
No.
No, absolutely not.
Our kids.
We're going there to
get our global entry.
Interviews for the children.
Because you and I have our global entries
since we're going out of
the country this summer.
But they make it very clear you are not
allowed to bring your
children through global entry
if they don't have their own--
Global entry.
Cards, right.
Yes.
Someone at customs was
very clear about that in one
of the trips that we took recently.
OK.
Yeah.
Got it.
Sorry.
I don't think that was recent.
They were small when we did that.
We were little, yeah.
I remember where we were.
But anyway, so that's--
so yeah, we'll do that.
And then we'll drop
everybody off at school
and have a regular full normal day again.
Right.
But nothing like getting going fast.
Nothing like getting going fast.
I'm sure it's--
I don't know.
Hopefully it's real quick.
I mean, what are they going to ask them?
Like, are you going
to ask an 11-year-old,
have you ever smuggled
anything into the country?
Yeah.
He'll be like, what does smuggle mean?
Do you go buy any aliases?
Bra.
What do you mean, bro?
Subskibbly the way they talk right now.
Subskibbly toilet.
I got the riz.
Like--
That's right.
I don't know what any of that means.
I hope I didn't offend anyone.
The skis.
Yeah.
We'll have to remind our
children to speak properly
tomorrow morning.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
[LAUGHTER]
I do wonder, like, what
are you going to ask them?
Well, we'll find out.
What other names have you gone by?
Three minors.
You know, they might not even know
how to spell their middle names.
Yeah.
Are these your-- have
you been married before?
I'm 11.
What country are we in here?
Right.
So that'll be fun.
Not really fun, but I
guess I'm just summing that up.
We'll get it in there.
There's been a couple things
that we've had to squeeze in.
You know, had to take
the daughter to urgent care
on top of you coming back from--
how was this weekend in Austin?
Yeah, I was going to get to that one.
It was great, you know.
It was good weather.
Soccer's the best when
there's good weather.
Yes.
And you're sitting on the
side of the lane, not freezing,
not sweating to
death, because it's usually
10 months of the year in Texas.
Soccer is either way too cold.
Yes.
It gets super cold here.
It does.
Like, I've worn--
I wear way too many layers.
Enough that I could
go skiing in it easily.
Yeah.
Maybe more than when I go skiing.
There are times when you
need to use two hands to count
the layers that you have.
Yeah.
So it gets really cold.
Or it's too hot.
I don't know how you move.
Like--
I mean, they've played in--
what's the lowest
temperature we've played in?
Like, actual or wind chill?
Because I mean--
With wind chill down here.
Oh, it's easily gotten in
the single, if not negatives.
I mean--
We've been right near zero.
We've been right near
zero with wind chill.
So that's cold.
And that was 17, like, actual or
something like that.
And we played.
They don't ever stop.
No.
I get that.
People in Minnesota might
think that's not a big deal.
But I don't think soccer
season's year round there.
Soccer season here for our
club soccer is year round.
Year round.
So there is no time off.
Other than maybe they
might give us July off.
Yeah.
And usually it's two
or three weeks in July.
Yeah, if your kid's committed to a club,
then you get July off.
Did you say cult or club?
I think you know
where I'm going with that.
Yeah.
I mean, they're really--
they're not that far off.
It's insane.
A word.
Or we'll play in 112.
I think it's the
hottest we've ever played in.
It was 112.
And they played.
The kids played.
Thank god they gave them
a break, a water break.
They actually-- no, they didn't just get
one water break per half.
They got two.
Oh, yeah.
Two water breaks in a half.
So every 10 minutes they got
to come off and get some water.
So no kids died of--
Do you remember--
Do you remember the one ref that we had
that got heat stroke
and started puking at halftime one time?
Yeah, I remember our oldest son guy.
He stroked and puked after the game.
Yeah.
That actually was the same
game that the ref got it, right?
Oh, was it really?
I think it was.
I may have blocked that out.
Oh, gosh.
It was awful.
That wasn't even the
hottest game we've had.
So--
Not even close.
Anyways, it was a
beautiful weekend down in Austin.
That was nice.
Our oldest had fun.
He's getting at the age where he's just
getting some good friends,
hanging out with them,
hopefully staying out of trouble.
But I mean, they have to go everywhere
with a parent anyway.
So I think it was good.
The one highlight for me
that I told you about was--
I love this.
I hope you're going there.
Well, yeah, it's not that big of a deal.
But some of the moms on
the team, one mom on the team
had a travel mahjong set, right?
And so she was getting ready to set up.
She's telling two other moms, oh, we're
going to learn to play mahjong.
She's going to teach them.
And I was always like, I love mahjong
because I played on
the computer, which is--
computer mahjong is not actual game
mahjong, which probably
everybody knows that.
So I'm just verifying
that everybody knows that.
But I was like, I
don't know how to play it.
I'd love to learn how to play it in my
mind at first, right?
Because she was like,
oh, we need a fourth.
Does anybody want to play it?
I didn't really know these moms that much
because this is a team that's--
the parents are a little
stick to themselves-ish.
Yeah, there's not a whole lot of--
everybody knows each other.
The whole team doesn't mingle.
It's not a mingling sideline.
Yeah, it's not.
So I had talked to
two of the moms before.
One we kind of know fairly well.
She's talked.
We know her the best on the team.
The best, yeah.
One, her son's come
over to the house before.
And the other one, I don't
think I've ever met before,
other than just maybe saying hi or a nod.
She was when that was teaching.
Anyways, they needed a fourth, and
there's no other moms there.
It was the NFL Draft this weekend,
so all the dads are sitting
down in the bar in this hotel.
It's really nice, a nice Hyatt place.
Oh, wow.
It was fancy.
Top notch.
It was highbrow.
There was literally an
Applebee's across the street.
But--
Fancy, like--
Like Applebee's.
Applebee's on a date night.
That's right.
So anyways, long story
short, she was like--
because they know some of the other dads.
And their dads were like, no, no, no,
we're not watching that.
No, I'm not going to do that.
We're going to watch the game.
It just felt like they were
too manly to sit with the girls
and play mahjong.
And I was like, yeah, I'd love to.
Which is-- I mean, it's not like classic
me by any means, no.
But I've always got along
better with women or girls
than I do with men, with females.
Yeah, thank you.
That's a much better way to say it.
Female is better than
males for whatever reason.
I'm just not a testosterone manly man.
And I just-- it's hard for me to connect
with testosterone manly men.
A lot of men are testosterone manly men
for whatever reason.
You are manly.
You're just not the over the
top, like, have to prove it.
You're like, I'm OK.
Like, if I would rather play mahjong,
I'm going to go play mahjong.
Mahjong looks like fun.
Yeah.
So anyways, I sat there with what became
known as the mahjong
moms.
And I was one of them.
And there's like--
there's this one part of mahjong
where, like, if you put down--
there's this one tile that
has a picture of a bird on it.
I don't remember the name of it.
She taught us the name of it.
I don't remember it now.
I was trying to remember it.
Remember it.
I know the picture of the bird that
you're talking about.
I didn't know it had a name.
When you put those down, those are ones
that you go, you go,
woohoo, and you
cheers, and you take a drink.
I had no idea.
I can't woohoo that high.
So I didn't do that, definitely.
But I did cheers.
Yay.
But it was just fun hanging
out with those three ladies.
They were fun.
They were funny.
Yeah.
They were giving each
other hard times and stuff.
I won the first game, by the way.
But the teacher, if she
ever hears this, I will say,
she gave me an asterisk on it.
Because you're not
supposed to have more than--
oh, I don't remember it.
I think 12 tiles.
OK.
And for some reason,
I had accumulated 16.
That's a lot.
But they're all on the side.
So I had to put those down.
I think I just forgot to
discard the ones when I picked up
the new ones.
So it was really legit.
But she gave me an asterisk on it.
Oh.
Yeah.
But I won the first one.
So anyways, it was fun.
Mahjong moms.
Funny, tomorrow-- or
maybe it's Thursday--
is International Mahjong Day.
You're kidding.
No.
So I did send a shout
out to the Mahjong moms.
You have to.
Yeah.
Because I'm one of them.
So they were calling me--
I mean, they didn't call me.
I threw it out there for them.
I'm like, that's all right.
I'm fine being a Mahjong mom.
I mean, I can be Shauna.
That's fine.
You're Shauna the Mahjong mama?
Yeah, that's right.
Shauna the Mahjong mama.
That's fun to say.
It really is.
Tongue twister, though.
Shauna the Mahjong mom.
Ooh, gah.
Fail.
Third time's not a charm.
Not a charm.
It's hard.
So that was fun.
Our oldest played well.
It's neat, because we're
just getting at that age
where there literally
are scouts walking around.
You can see them.
They've got clipboards.
They don't blend in all that well.
Really?
Because these are the
higher tiers of soccer clubs.
So a lot of these kids are being scouted
for semi-professional
teams and college teams.
Right.
So it's cool.
It's fun.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
So I don't know if the kids get--
if they feel pressure from it or not.
But I didn't get the sense
that they felt pressure from it.
They still wanted to win.
And we probably gave away two
games that we shouldn't have.
It's really good competition.
And we play people from
all around the country.
So Nashville,
California, and I think South Texas
is where we played.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
It sounds like it was a lot of fun.
And now that I know that you're a--
I can't call you a woo girl.
But yeah, knowing that you were woo--
Yeah.
I can only go so far.
You can't be a woo girl?
I will never be a woo girl.
No.
I'll be a mahjong mom.
But I won't be a woo girl.
Ever.
I feel like you?
I've never been a woo girl.
No.
I've never been a woo girl.
I wonder if our
daughter will be a woo girl.
I hope not.
We've already labeled it.
She knows what woo girls are.
She does.
We kind of make fun of them, kind of.
No offense to any woo girls watching.
Yeah, I can be the woo girl.
Yeah.
It's a personality thing.
I was never one.
Yeah.
Do you remember when she
was little and she like--
we were in a limousine.
And she was standing up and wanted
to get out of the sunroof?
Yeah.
She was like three.
Well, at four, we were at
that concert north of Chicago.
Yes.
And she was standing on the bleachers.
Bleachers.
Dancing.
And I think probably wooing.
She was probably wooing.
So maybe they grow out of it.
Maybe it's something
people don't ever grow out of.
It's innate, maybe.
Or it's just a growth stage
that you should grow out of.
Yeah.
And you peak in your toddler years,
like in the case of our daughter, maybe?
You could peak in certain years, yeah.
Yeah.
And if you peak early, that's OK.
Better than peaking late than that.
Yeah.
I would say.
Yeah.
She's always been someone
with a just a zest for life.
She has.
Poor thing has been sick, though.
So hopefully she starts feeling better.
I know.
I feel so bad.
Algae's been so bad.
Our pool is green.
It's been green for like two weeks now.
It's greener than our grass.
Yeah.
I said that the other day.
I was like, wow, the
pool sure looks great.
It's so green.
It looks like a pond.
Yeah.
It looks like a pond.
And I'm pretty sure there's
probably more chlorine in it
than actual H2O at this point.
But there's been so much pollen.
And then we had those dust storms
that came through a month
and a half ago, maybe now.
It's just been--
I know our pool guy is
pulling his hair out.
I know.
Poor guy.
He's like the nicest guy, too.
Super nice guy, yeah.
But our pool is ugly.
It is.
It really is.
And it takes a lot of work for you.
Yeah.
It's that time of year.
And I told you, too, it's spring.
And it's just all that
work to do with, oh, you've
got to do this.
You've got to do that.
To the house, getting it ready.
I told you the other day.
And I am feeling it more and more.
I think I've just hit
the age where I don't
enjoy doing yard work anymore.
I didn't know if you'd ever hit that age.
I didn't.
I never minded it.
Never minded it.
Because it was just something--
You know.
It was kind of just not enjoyable.
That's the wrong word for it.
But it was kind of an escape.
It was easy.
It was a quick check the box.
You could take pride
in the fact, like, hey,
I'm making this look nice.
And you're being productive.
You're outside.
Yeah.
There's a lot of those--
Digging that sump pump
and digging things out now
and moving rock, stuff like that.
Some of that more
landscaping, heavy lifting stuff.
Oh, yeah.
Not that I'm incapable
of doing it physically.
Right.
I think mentally I am now.
I don't want to do it anymore.
Oh, my gosh.
Well, and your knee is hurt, too.
Yeah.
Did we talk about that last time?
You didn't.
So the funny update there was just, as
everybody may or may
not recall, we were trying
to be careful on the ski trip
that Megan blew her
knee out, everything on it.
We were really nervous
about that because my knee had
been hurting.
Yeah.
And my knee has never hurt.
Figured something was wrong with it.
The doctor never took an MRI,
but thought there was probably
a slight tear in it.
So I wanted to be really
careful that I didn't blow my knee
out, which I didn't, thank God.
Yeah, you didn't.
But since we've maxed
out our medical this year,
I figured I'd go get MRIs and everything
because of my two shoulders and my knee.
Long story short, my
knee, in my meniscus,
I've got a lateral tear.
And for lateral tears, they
can't do anything about it
because there's nothing
to sew it to and whatnot.
So it's fine.
Many people have it.
It's not like I'm incapable of doing it.
It doesn't limit me.
I don't think other than the
pain and the swelling it feels.
Yeah.
So it does.
I do have limited
mobility in it now, more so.
So I mean, these are the
things getting old, people.
Again, this is the chaos train, just
throw the things into it.
But I got MRIs on my two--
my shoulders also because I
can't sleep normal in those.
When you talk about getting old,
everybody like, I can't--
now I got to put--
instead of my arm under my head
when I'm sleeping on the pillow, my arm
has to go like behind me
or just totally on my back.
You do have some pretty odd sleeping.
It's only where my
shoulders will allow me to go
because I have two torn
ligaments in both my shoulders
also.
But none that require surgery, though.
None of them require surgery.
It's just annoyances.
That's crazy.
In limiting and maybe some PT
to go along to get my mobility
back, I think, and get
the pain because I mean,
I can't even touch my back with this arm
because it's so stiff.
But it's been like
that for five years now.
Yeah, your shoulders have
been jacked up for a long time.
It's the medical term.
You act up.
By the way, PT was asking when they're
going to get to see Mr. Megan.
Am I on their list?
No, I don't think yet.
They're like, we haven't
seen it come through yet.
Oh, well, I just--
I appeal so much to
the moms and the ladies.
They probably heard
about my mahjong skills
and want me to come in.
I was only there one time.
Lasting impression.
They're all like, where's Mr. Megan?
Oh, my goodness.
Your chauffeur no longer
needs to chauffeur you.
Right.
So I can chauffeur myself.
You're an independent woman.
Yeah.
And yeah, they're like, oh, my gosh,
we can't wait to have both of you here.
That's funny.
It is funny because, well, I guess no.
I was going to say it's
mostly women, but I was like,
actually, no, it's
about 50-50 when I go in.
There's definitely some male patients.
I need to get the
exercises, and I can incorporate them
when I do my workouts.
Yeah.
Well, they would love to have you.
Yeah.
Well, what else do we
want to talk about here?
There's been a lot of chit chat.
It has.
This is because we
haven't seen each other all day.
It's like, oh, catch up.
Or a lot of the week either because I
was gone for three and
a half days in Austin.
You were here with the other two.
And I was here with the other two.
And that was just--
I was expecting there to be a lot more
downtime this weekend.
And there was none.
Yeah.
None.
I know one of the
things you did, you went to--
we've been talking
about the soccer thing.
We finally made our decision.
Yeah.
And I can say in our household that it
was a split household
to some degree because we could really
make a decision which
team we went to for our youngest.
Yeah.
We really could have
made an appeal either way.
An argument for
either coach, either team.
It was really hard.
It was just super hard decision to make.
We tried to make it last week.
We hung on to it a little bit longer.
You went and saw everybody for the team
that we ended up not going to, which
is kind of the heart of the
old team and the old coach.
Yeah.
And it was--
I didn't know what way we
were going to go at that moment.
But it's like, these are our friends.
And this is a coach that's had a big
impact on our kid's life.
And it's just--
these decisions are emotional.
But our youngest--
I mean, we ultimately left it up to him.
And he was very--
I thought for an 11-year-old, very mature
to make the decision he did.
And why?
Because he could tell me exactly why.
Yeah, I was going to
say, I appreciated the fact
that he was
thoughtful about his reasoning.
Yep.
I mean, he articulated to me
multiple times, this is why.
I know I'm going to miss this.
Like, he completely
understood what I'm giving up
and what that was.
And I think a big part of it was the fact
that he had already mentally known
he was moving from that
coach to the other coach.
Oh, that was huge, yeah.
Because that's the way it
was supposed to happen anyways.
It's just the club
screwed the whole thing up.
It made it hard.
It made everybody make this decision.
And that's part of why
we were so upset about it.
So that's nice to have that done.
I still feel glad to tell
some of the other parents.
It's not like these
kids are 11 years old.
Well, it's a small circle.
But there is a huge chance that we'll
play on teams with these people again.
And we definitely will see them.
And we can stay in touch and all of that.
So that does make me
feel good knowing that I
think we did right by everybody.
At least I hope we
did right by everybody.
I know you had to have
all the tough conversations.
Yeah, it's funny.
That's one of the things I
was going to talk about here.
We don't have time today.
We can talk about it on a different one.
But just having those
tough conversations--
I used to think, I used to
say that I'm good at having
those tough conversations.
You are.
But they're just so uncomfortable.
But from what I see on the outside,
you navigate those tough
conversations very well.
You don't seem like you're uncomfortable.
You do a great job of
being candid, yet empathetic.
And so you handle them so well.
So whether you feel
like it's uncomfortable,
it's not from the outside.
Yeah, they are uncomfortable.
I think I misspoke.
And the most
uncomfortable part of the process
is the lead up to it, the
just not wanting to do it,
the feeling like you're
letting somebody down.
Because in the instance of this coach
that we didn't go with,
I really like him.
Oh, yes.
Yes.
As a coach, as a person--
All the above.
This wasn't a case of
he couldn't have still
taught our kids something.
It's not a case that we thought someone
was better than the other.
It was just a myriad of
other factors that came into it.
And one of the biggest one
was when the gods smile on you,
we drive an hour every
night of the week, Monday
through Thursday, to go
to their soccer practice
at a high school across
town, an hour across town.
By the way, it's at 6.15 or 6.30.
And then the next one's at 7.15 or 7.30.
So we have to leave the
house at like 4.50 or 5 o'clock
to make sure we're there by 6.30.
So it's a commitment to get there.
And the gods have smiled
on us because all three kids
are there.
That was probably, for me, one of the
biggest factors in it.
Because our middle daughter, who's not
playing club soccer,
but her club track just happens to be at
the same high school.
Yes.
It's like, oh.
Yeah, exactly.
I would do that, but
that's kind of a woo girl thing.
So I'm going to let you do that.
It's a woo girl thing.
I hit that note pretty well, actually.
Yeah, that was good.
Yeah.
So yeah, so we can talk
about making hard decisions.
We've had to have discussions at work,
putting people on pips,
or giving annual
reviews, or mid-year reviews,
and giving tough feedback.
Those conversations don't come easy.
I do find it hard sometimes to--
as much as you want to
pull that band-aid off,
sometimes you only pull it halfway.
It's like, ah, I
should have just done it.
Now I've got to go back and do it again.
Yes.
So hard.
And it just-- I don't know.
I struggle with that.
It's because we have some empathy.
I've had managers that
don't have people skills.
Yeah.
They're robotic about things.
Yeah.
I never would want to be
that kind of a manager.
No.
No, I actually told someone.
I know you're not either.
Yeah, I told someone that I work with.
She-- you know, we're
going through a tough employee
situation or whatever.
And she was like, I can tell
this is really hard on you.
And I was like, well, yeah.
And the day that it's not is the day
that I shouldn't be leading people.
Like, if this is ever easy, that's the
wrong spot to be in.
Yeah.
I don't know.
That's when I get in the
whole, like, lace your boots up.
Because I think they're hard.
I think those conversations,
as hard as they are for you,
I think I struggle with them even more.
I like to be all Pollyanna a lot.
And so getting real and having that
conversation is so hard.
And so those are the lace up your boots.
Yeah.
Well, that's definitely
the balance in our house.
Our kids know that very well.
Dad is realistic.
They know what being
realistic is from day one.
They've never not known that.
Right?
And you're positive.
I am.
So we're real positive in the end.
It's pretty good.
We're real positive.
Yeah.
So well, what do we got coming up here?
Let's see.
We have a whole bunch of end
of the year things coming up.
And--
Yeah, going into May, it's
the last month of school.
It's the last month of school.
And we have different parties and
different awards things.
I think two of our
kids have awards things
that we get to go to.
So we get to fit that in.
We got a kid going and
starting Driver's Ed.
I know.
He was all about it the other night.
He's telling me a little bit about it.
He's only got like an hour
of like a 70 hour course time.
So don't get too excited.
I seem pretty gotten home.
But yeah, I mean, it's just
all the good stuff, I guess.
So I think it's a busy weekend.
I think so.
I think things popped up on the calendar
that I wasn't expecting.
Yeah, I saw some of that come up thinking
we didn't have anything.
We'll be getting into
our middle daughters.
Her track season now is going to start
getting going in May
and June.
Yeah.
Big time.
That'll be fun.
It's our first time through this process.
So feels so unplanned and
unprepared and unorganized
is probably the word I'm looking for.
Although I know the ladies
that are running it aren't.
Aren't.
Yeah, no, I think it's just
because it's so new to us.
I think the difference is we know soccer.
We know what to expect on soccer teams
and things like that.
We know when the schedule comes out.
So we plan on that.
And we don't know any of that here.
So it feels that way.
I mean, if I didn't
know anything about soccer,
for a tournament, we don't get the
schedule for the tournament
until the Wednesday
before the tournament.
People might think that's crazy.
And it's like, but that's
just what we've gotten used to.
I always know.
I know it's a tournament weekend, but I
don't know what it is
until about Wednesday.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It's a lot of fun.
Yeah.
Well, all right.
Well, good.
Well, I don't think I
have that much coming up.
I mean, it's just getting through--
it's just blocking
and tackling right now,
kind of into the school
year, into the soccer season,
starting of the track season, just some
blocking and tackling,
it feels like.
It is.
Yeah.
I know it's day four for you.
And you just got to
get one more thing out.
Yeah.
You'll be there.
You'll see the next summit.
There's full summits everywhere.
Yeah.
You never reach the summit, do you?
You know, I feel like we're
flying by the seat of our pants
a whole lot.
Oh, yeah.
Yes, we are, for sure, more than I feel
like we ever have been.
Yes.
And it's not a great
place because you're like, ah,
I don't know.
I feel like we're making it up as we go.
Yeah.
Did our parents feel that way?
I'm sure they did.
We're going to ask them.
Yeah.
And then hopefully they can get back to us.
All right.
Well, should we wrap it up?
Yes, we should wrap it up.
So what was your word last week?
Do you remember it?
No.
OK, I don't remember mine either.
So we'll just pick
our words for this week.
OK, so we're summarizing
how this last week was.
Mm-hmm.
OK, so think about your word.
Uh-huh.
And let me know when you got it.
I got it.
All right.
I got mine.
OK.
All right.
I think we might
diverge quite a bit here.
We might.
I have no idea.
Yeah, OK.
We'll do the
scalability at the end of it.
Yeah.
All right, here we go.
One, two, three.
Progress.
Oh, you're kidding.
Get out of here.
I would never have guessed that one.
I would have never guessed that.
I almost-- I was almost going to say--
because sometimes when
we say it over each other,
you can't hear the other person.
Yeah.
We just said the same word.
There's three episodes
to get to the same word.
Wow.
We did it again.
Well, that one might--
Oh.
We really do finish each other's--
sentences.
Quite literally.
So OK, because the crazy thing
was I was thinking enclosure,
and I was like, no.
Not closure.
But I feel like we're making progress
this week on some things.
Yeah, because I was going
to say one step at a time,
one more step closer.
So it was like, OK, we
made a little bit of progress
this week on just some of
these boxes we have to check.
No doors have opened up.
We have some of the other things.
But it's just one step at a time.
So it's progress.
Yeah.
That's funny.
Three.
Three episodes.
So 33% of the time, we
have the exact same word.
Yeah.
That's pretty incredible.
It-- I think that's a win.
I mean, it's probably only
going to go down from there.
[LAUGHTER]
No.
It's a win for sure.
[LAUGHTER]
All right, well, it's
the middle of the week.
We all got to get up
and go to the airport
early, early in the morning,
and then go to work and school.
And then go to work and school.
Let's go to bed.
All right.
Love you.
See you guys next week.
See ya.
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